As of today, the Marlborough Sounds wireless broadband project has been completed. Aptly named Clova Connect, the project provides residents of Clova Bay and Waitaria Bay with high speed broadband internet at a very affordable cost.
I have created a dedicated section of the website to this project, viewable here, that will include full details on the project conception, set up, operation, equipment and cost.
I have heard on the grapevine that many other communities out there wish to establish similar projects so I will provide a full tutorial on how to get started.
Soon to come will be photos of the entire setup. Also under full development is a ‘contrib’ package for SME Server that will allow for better management and reporting of internet usage for community users.
Here are some plans for a 2.4GHz collinear omnidirectional antenna I found lying about. I’m not sure where this came from so I’ve posted it here for you to use.
If I get around to building one I’ll post a construction guide with photos and test results.
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Yet another website update! I’ve switched to WordPress as it seems to be a much more polished and managable product than the old Geeklog.
I’m doing my best to migrate as many old articles as possible to the new site so you can look up key events in the projects past. The layout is also a mess as I ended up using a theme with really dodgy CSS. I’ll fix it up soon hopefully.
A member of the project recently purchased a XH8287 access point from Dick Smith Electronics. This had previously been returned by a clueless customer on the basis it didn’t work and found not be faulty so was purchased at a substantial discount. I was tasked with preparing it as a MarlWiFi client and on closer inspection I noticed it appeared to closely resemble a Linksys WAP54G… And it runs Linux… Oh the possibilities!
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The main AP has been shifted to the Redwood area of town and is back up and running on channel 11. Due to lower noise the network is back in shape and running beautifully. The antenna has also bee replaced with a better one to minimise SWR.
One notable change to come from this is that the antenna is now vertically polarised so you will need to adjust your antenna to suit.
Thanks for your patience!
